Citation from The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia by Barry Moreno (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000):
Armature: "Liberty's vast network of steel bars. A total of 1,830 armature bars form horizontal and vertical patterns carefully shaped to match the contours of the copper plates, and are designed to expand or contract easily in response to heat and cold without causing metallic stress. The steel bars and copper plates are joined indirectly by steel brackets known as saddles. Twelve thousand rivets secure the armature network in place. The armature bars then connect to the interior skeletal framework by means of 325 flat bars or springs. This relieves the statue of rigidity, transferring excess pressure, generated by such forces as the wind, to the central framework." (page 22).
Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave: "Designer of the Statue of Liberty's internal skeletal support system in 1880, for which he was paid a commission by the Franco-American Union. The primary structure of this system, the iron pylon, 96 feet (29.54 meters) high, was adapted from his previous work on bridges. This massive tower serves as the central attachment point for a complex asymmetrical girder of lightweight trusswork that forms the statue's body (the base structure of Liberty's arm alone rises 65 feet, or 19.81 meters). This, flat metal bars are bolted at one end to the pylon tower and at the other to the interior of the statue's skin, forming a flexible suspension against which the sculpted plates adhere. This elasticity allows the skin of the statue to adjust to expansions and contractions caused by temperature changes and to resist the force of winds. The design has been judged by critics as a work of stunning originality--indeed, of genius. But perhaps conscious of the framework's invisibility, Gustave Eiffel seldom numbered it among his triumphs. His most acclaimed work is the Eiffel Tower, approximately 985 feet (280 meters) high, which he designed in 1885 for the Paris World's Fair of 1899. The metal structure held the record as the world's highest building until 1931. In addition, he was renowned for his elegant yet serviceable railway bridges, in particular, the Pia Maria Bridge over the River Douro in Oporto, Portugal (1877) and the Garabit Viaduct Bridge in the Auvergne mountains of France (1884). He also designed railway stations and department stores. Maurice Koechlin and Emile Noguier were perhaps his most trusted and talented assistant engineers. In 1893, Eiffel fell into disgrace with Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps over the failed French Panama Canal scheme. Eiffel was convicted of breach of trust and condemned to prison for two years." (pages 79-80)
Skeleton: "Liberty's skeleton is composed of three parts: 1 92-foot-high powerfully trussed tower known as the pylon, a lighter skeletal framework attached to the pylon, and a skin-support and attachment system. The first two parts of the skeleton are triangulated for rigidity." (page 214)
Secondary Source Documents:
Book" The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, (1885).
http://books.google.com/books?id=p02VNP45RdsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=statue+of+liberty&lr=&ei=tSUGSNmXI4zGyASPm42PAg#PPP7,M1
Essay: "The Engineering of Symbols: The Statue of Liberty and Other Nineteenth-Century Towers and Monuments" by David P. Billington in The Statue of Liberty Revisited edited by Wilton S. Dillon & Neil G. Kotler (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994).
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